The present invention relates to earthquake resistant multi-story buildings which exhibit an excellent earthquake resistance behavior.
Buildings have been designed according to an elastic design concept which requires that the stress of structural members of buildings should be lower than a predetermined value which is within the elastic range against design loads such as earthquakes. It is required, according to an elastic design concept, that the maximum stress should be within the elastic range and less than a predetermined magnitude against earthquakes of medium size which the building may experience relatively frequently; and less than the yield stress against ultimate earthquakes which the building may experience. In other words, conventional design concepts do not allow the structural members of buildings to enter into the plastic range.
On the other hand, there is a method called the limit state design. The method is capable of analyzing the seismic behavior of buildings over the elastic range by taking into account the sequential yielding of structural members during earthquakes. Akiyama has proposed in his literature "Earthquake Resistant Limit State Design for Buildings", University of Tokyo Press, that when a story of a multi-story building enters into plastic range and the story has hysteretic characteristics regarding the force-displacement relationship, the story absorbs the vibrational energy during earthquakes and thus reduces the deformation of other stories. Akiyama provides, in the book, schematic concepts of buildings which have the elasto-plastic force-displacement relationship. Although, the literature of Akiyama provides only general idea of a type of earthquake resistant building and does not provide an actual structure or force-displacement relationship which functions as theoretically expected.